Butterfly Inside Cake

Butterfly Inside Cake is another surprise cake. It reveals a great butterfly pattern when sliced. A cake layer is baked and butterflies are cut out of it. Then those butterflies are then baked again with another batter. Read on to know the detailed process.

Check more surprise cakes which are not only tasty but beautiful to look at – checkerboard cake, rainbow checkerboard cake, piñata cake.

When your daughter tells you to make a butterfly inside cake, you stand over your head and do it. And this is exactly what happened!! I was bullied, emotionally blackmailed and pestered into making this butterfly cake.

Though I have been seeing many cakes with patterns/ shapes inside, I never tried to venture into the foray. But one day during discussion of birthday prep for my older one, my little one totally took off demanding a birthday cake and party planning for her too. I tried to tell her that her birthday is still 6 months away while her brother’s is just round the corner, but she refused to let go and I was badgered daily for next 5 days till I finally gave in and created a cake which she wanted – A Butterfly Cake.

It looks like a big task but honestly it is nothing. You need to prepare 2 cakes – one for cutting desired shape (butterfly in my case) using a cookie cutter and the second cake batter to bake with cut shapes inside.

I baked a chocolate cake on day 1 and then sliced it. Then using a butterfly cookie cutter, I cut butterfly shapes and stored them. Next day I prepared a vanilla cake batter and placed the butterfly cake upright in the pan. Then poured the batter on it. I didn’t use a piping bag and hence my butterflies got a bit skewed. So i strongly suggest using a piping bag and piping the remaining batter around the shapes you place.

You can use any cake of your choice to cut desired shapes using a cookie cutter. My daughter specifically wanted butterflies so I used a butterfly cookie cutter. You can even invert the cake by using vanilla slices for inside and outside batter as chocolate or use colored batter for shapes and vanilla for outside. Options and your creativity is limitless here.

Print Recipe

Butterfly Inside Cake

Butterfly Inside Cake is another surprise cake. It reveals a great butterfly pattern when sliced. A cake layer is baked and butterflies are cut out of it. Then those butterflies are then baked again with another batter. Read on to know the detailed process.

Prep Time10 minutes mins

Cook Time1 hour hr

Total Time1 hour hr 10 minutes mins

Course: Baking

Cuisine: Vegetarian

Keyword: Bakery, chocolate, cupcake, eggless

Servings: 1 loaf cake

Ingredients

• 1½ cup all purpose flour
• 1 cup yogurt homemade curd or buttermilk
• ¾ cup sugar granulated
• ½ tsp baking soda
• 1¼ tsp baking powder
• ½ cup olive oil
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 6-7 butterfly shaped cake slices

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 200 °F. Grease and line a loaf pan. Sift flour 2-3 times.
• In a large bowl, beat the sugar and yogurt for 5 minutes on high speed. Add baking powder and baking soda, beat in on low, and allow to stand for 3 minutes. You will find that bubbles appear. Beat in the oil and vanilla extract to the curd mixture. Slowly add the flour in 4 lots, blending in well after each addition. Pour ¾th of the batter in a piping bag.
• Pour remaining batter in the prepared pan. Place butterflies in upright position about 1 cm apart, pipe the batter in and around the cut shape. Bake at 200 °C for 10 minutes, reduce temperature to 170 °C and bake for 35 minutes or till a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean.
• Cool the cake for 30 minutes and then overturn onto a plate. Wait for at least 2 hours before slicing it, else it doesn’t slice neatly.

Notes

1. You can use any cake of your choice to cut desired shapes using a cookie cutter. My daughter specifically wanted butterflies so I used a butterfly cookie cutter.
2. You can invert the cake by using vanilla slices for the inside and outside batter as chocolate or use the colored batter for shapes and vanilla for the outside. Options and your creativity are limitless here.
3. I used oil for my cake.
4. Like a quickbread, it is best to slice the cake the next day.
5. I have realized that the baking time in OTG & convection microwave ovens may vary. I bake in the convection mode of my Microwave and hence timing is according to that. eg this cake takes 25 minutes after reducing temp 170°C in the convection mode, but it takes much lesser in OTG. So please monitor time-based on the appliance you are using.